MPKK and JKKK: There cannot be ‘two queen bees’ in one colony, says PBB exco man
MIRI: If Village Community Management Council (MPKK) and the Village Security and Development Committee (JKKK) could be likened to two queen bees in the same hive, a mixed frenzy of celebration and rage would reign in the colony, opined Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) executive committee member Councillor Dominic Nyurang Ajeng.
He believed that the chaos would not cease until only one queen bee was left standing.
He presented this analogy during a phone interview with The Borneo Post yesterday, relating it to the protest by the Orang Ulu community against the establishment of the MPKK.
“It is sowing discord in Orang Ulu society, who would otherwise live in harmony with one another as they have been for many decades,” said the Telang Usan PBB Youth chief.
Dominic said the tension had been brewing, prompting the Orang Ulu Council of Elders – headed by Kayan paramount chief Temenggong Elizabeth Deng – to make it known to all that the Orang Ulu had rejected the MPKK.
“It should be a clear sign to the PH (Pakatan Harapan)-led government not to meddle in Sarawak tradition of village leadership, and the ‘adat’ (customary laws). MPKK is only a political tool designed to work in PH’s favour to gain political mileage,” said Dominic.
According to him, the use of PH’s service centre for the coordination of MPKKs is strong indication that it is indeed a political tactic. PH said they only want to help the villages get funds and projects from the federal government.
“If that’s the sincere reason, then why not channel the funds and projects through the JKKKs instead? The creation of the MPKK and the deliberate act of the PH forcing it down our throats are blatant disregard of our Orang Ulu ‘adat’ where traditionally, the village chiefs who are also the JKKK chairmen are chosen from among the Marens, or members of the aristocracy.”
Dominic regarded the MPKK as ‘being enforced by mere stroke of a pen from the federal government’, but the JKKK had always been under the purview of the Sarawak Ordinance, in particular the Community Chiefs and Headmen Ordinance, 2004.
“Article (3) of the Ordinance says, ‘The Yang di-Pertua Negeri (Sarawak) shall, by notification in the Gazette, designate any person to be the appointing authority for a Chief or Headman in respect of the whole state, or any administrative area or for any particular community in Sarawak.
“It was agreed 56 years ago that for any federal law passed that could affect Sarawak and its people, it must get the consent from the Sarawak government first and foremost, for without Sarawak’s approval, the law is not enforceable in Sarawak.
“That has been stated in the MA63 (Malaysian Agreement 1963),” stressed Dominic, who viewed the MPKK as ‘a new form of colonising Sarawak by Putrajaya’.
“This should be rejected by all Sarawakians,” he added.